CHAPTER XLI 



SMALLPOX AND 

 ITS CONTROL 



EdwarJ Jenner. 



Keystone View Co. 

 Tribute to Jenner and 

 vaccination. 



Has smallpox ever been epidemic? Is inoculation for smallpox a 

 new method of treatment? How did vaccination first start? What 

 effect has vaccination had on the mortality from smallpox? 



History of smallpox. Smallpox was known in China many cen- 

 turies before the Christian era. It also existed in India, Arabia, 

 Ethiopia, and neighboring countries. It spread through Europe 

 during the Crusades. The first epidemic of smallpox in Europe 

 took place in the latter part of the sixteenth century. For centu- 

 ries, it was estimated that ten out of every hundred deaths were due 

 to smallpox. More than half the people in Europe were scarred and 

 disfigured by the disease. It is probable that at least 60,000,000 

 people died from smallpox during the eighteenth century. 



The disease was first brought into America by the Spaniards 

 about 1515. Within a short period, three and a half million people 

 in Mexico died of it. Probably half of the American Indians died 

 during various epidemics of smallpox. Boston has had six epi- 

 demics ; in the last one, 1752, there were 5989 smallpox victims 

 out of a population of over 15,000 ; of these, 894 died. 



History of inoculation against smallpox. Inoculation first origi- 

 nated in the Orient, hundreds of years ago. The people would 

 introduce into a cut or scratch of a well person, the pus or scab 



420 



